Corrugated hopper door for railway cars



June 12, 1928. 1,673,449

G. G. GlLPlN CORRUGATED HOPPER DOOR FOR RAILWAY CARS Filed Aug. 1 925 Jizvenzor: M Garth 616560112 125.4

. Hzzqrnqy Patented June 12, 1928.

UNITED STATES GARTH COMPANY, OFCHIGAGO, ILLINOIS, A. CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

CORRUGAT D HOPPER noon non RAILWAY cans.

Application filed August 14, 1925. Serial No. 50,223. J i

i The invention relates to arailway dump car having a door forming a part of the car for retaining the load therein which door is provided with hinges adjacent one of its edges and is capable of being dropped or swung open so that the load in discharging slides or" passes over the upper surface of the door. Any means of raising the door to the closed position and any means for locking and releasing the door may be employed with my device.

Experience has shown that a slight projection on the upper surface of such a door causes the discharging load to bank up and seriously retard the unloading of the car sometimes completely obstructing the opening and at other times causing some of the material to remain in the car. It is essential that the entire load be discharged when the doors are dropped in order to conserve time when the cars are being used to ballast a main line track, or to eliminate the necessity of maintaining-men to. remove any the car after the doorsare dropped.

The relative position of the rail, the truck (and other parts of the car) and service conditions also regulate the inclination of the door after it is dropped, so that it is seldom possible to allow the doors to drop to a vertical position; in fact, in a drop bottom gondola car the doors are positioned only about 30 degrees from a horizontal plane when in open position.

A door for this purpose must be very strong and durable because:

First, it is a part of the floor of the car and as such must sustain the load as well as the impact blow of the load when the car is in motion. Second, the car is frequently loaded from chutes or tipples from a height of ten feet or more, causing the load to be dropped directly upon the doors. Third, clam shell buckets are frequently used to unload such cars and it is not uncommon for these buckets to rest upon and dra over the doors. Fourth, when the door suddenly comes to rest after being dropped it is not only subjected to a severe shock but it must sustain the severe impact thrust of the load which, of course, follows the door. Fifth, as the load is theoretically equally distributed, the door must be strong over its entire area and must be capable of transmitting the resulting stresses to the car body small portion of the. load that remains in without much deflection and no substantial dlstortlon. Any bending of the door or drooplng of the corners would cause a leak of the lading, especially of such fine material as sand, chats, etc. Any bending or warpng might interfere with the complete closmg and locking of the door.

As it costs as much to haul a ton of car as 1t doesto haul a ton of payinglfreight, it is imperative that the car and'any part thereof be as light as possible. Further G. GILIIN QF RIVERSIDE, ILLINOIS, .ASSIGNOR .TO UNION PRODIICTS 1nore,'the total weight of the car and freight i is determined by thestrength of certain standard axles, so that the lighter the car the. greater amount of freight a given car will be allowed to carry.

Various means have been used to strengthen a plate metal door to meet the service conditions. Reinforcements have been secured to the door thus materially lncreasing its weight which is objectionable. Various integral reinforcements (such as corrugations) have been formed in metallic plates which, however, interfere with the discharge of the loading or have" other objectionablefeatures i I One of the objects of the invention is to obtain a strong durable door for a load discharging freight car made of a metallic plate formed with integral corrugations which are positioned approximately normal tothe direction of discharge of the lading but are of such configurations as not to interfere with the movement of the cargo when leaving the car.

Another object of the invention is to provide an arrangement whereby the corrugatrons are posltioned substantially normal to a the supportinghinges and-yet will not in terfere with the discharge of the lading. v The advantages of my door are applicable to any door of a freight car over which the lading moves when being discharged'from the car, such as drop bottom general service cars (used in the drawings) hopper cars, swinging side doors or hopper bottom coal cars, etc. I a

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 shows a portion of a railway car i with my invention applied thereto.

Fig. 2 is a; section on line 2- -2 of Fig. 1 showing the door in open position.

Fig. 3 is a section on line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4: is an enlarged section through a corrugated portion of the door.

To ojgne iadaptati'onoof; my device, I' hafve shown a so-called general service drop bottom gondolzi car wherein the mmjonrportion of the floor consists of drop doors. The door openings are-surrounded by the center construction, sidewall and cross diaphragms. In normal or closed positlon the door completely closes thig opening and,

in fact, is a trifle largeron all sides'than' h Q as, tq p ide l er: et th hree f'tlie {the car frame Thehinge arejhinged to, the center, Construction are supported e dj eihent the 1 side wall by the, misiiig-or opkin'g lll cha- 3 getion so that it presents snh stantielly no r ng mntprovlds ery, fi ien o bl s ppo ted eam with. overhanging end portions and obtains acooperati'on' between the hinge beams, the corrugations and the flanges." ff Thet-q f gations are eac formed n a radins lferger than thedepth 05 h; Corruresistance to the} easy moyeinertt of the 10nd over the doors when discharging. The corrugations may project in one direction from the original pl-aneof the sheet or may project opp'ositely'if desired. It there are flat ortions between the corrugations they are preferably the same width as the corrugations.

I claim:

1. A doo1;, for e, railway car made, at :1V

metallic plate reinforced, with integral corrugetions formed on an arc "o1 on circle having a, radius lzrr er; than. th depth of the corrugation, and" at portions in the original plane of the, plate positioned between said corrugations of the'seme width as vt 1e corrugations. I

v 2. A door for a milway car mode of a; metallic (plate. reinforced with integral corrugations projecting eltern'ately upwardly end downwa rdly each corrngetion formed on an arc of a circle haying a radius larger than the depth of." the r mgation, end por ons in the; whip- 1 p ane Qt h Plilt Po it oned between and bd u et o 3. A door for at railway o'er mode of a ,Inetallicfplate reinforced with integral corrugations projecting alternately "upwardly and downwardly; each corrugation formed on anarc of a circle having winding larv than the depth-of the corrugation, and lint portions in the original plane of the plate positioned'het'xneen said corrugations of the same width as the corru ati'ons.

' GAR. H G} GILPIN. 

